Dilemma of the Day by David Dumouriez

Time’s a cliché in our pages.

Or a timeless theme.

Or both.

Four and twenty hours, gents and ladies,

Demarcated for your rare delight!

Too short to write a symphony (I’m guessing)

But long enough to lose and feel regret.

Should I try that poem now? 

That novel? 

That short story?

None done today; none even started.

Tomorrow. I’ll grace my chair tomorrow.

Waste. Waste.

Guilt.

What gave it to me, that I’ll never know.

But just the fact of having it’s enough.

Apply this to a life and multiply.

The experiences slipped; places missed;

The people not addressed. The very shame!

The lot of us: we organisms,

We piteous things, who got too far beyond ourselves

And captured time’s reflection in a glass.

It wasn’t meant to be like this, I’ll bet.

At least, that is, if anything was meant.

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David Dumouriez once won a poetry competition by accident and the memory of it still haunts him. His hobbies include cricket, horology, and finding new ways to avoid talking about himself.